Creation of customized transactional cards

ABSTRACT

Customized transactional cards are created in one of various ways. The card holder may obtain a blank transactional card already having an encoded account number, create a customized design, and then apply the customized design to the blank transaction card such as by printing the design onto a label to be applied to the blank transactional card or directly onto the card. The card holder may obtain a blank transactional card which has not yet been authorized with an account number, create a customized design, apply the customized design to the transactional card, and at some point send the transactional card to the card issuer where it can be authorized by having an account number applied to it and then returned to the card holder. The card holder may access a web site to create a customized design and then the card issuer creates the transactional card according to the customized design and sends the transactional card having an encoded account number to the card holder.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The embodiments described herein are related to transactional cards suchas credit cards and debit cards. More particularly, the presentinvention is related to the creation of customized transactional cards.

BACKGROUND

Transactional cards such as credit cards and debit cards are carried bymany individuals. Conventionally, such transactional cards contain amachine-readable element such as a bar code or a magnetic strip that hasan account number encoded thereon. The transactional cards typicallyinclude the account number in visible, raised numerals and may alsoinclude the name of the card holder. Other text may also be includedsuch as the name of the card issuer and the regulations for use.

Transactional cards have conventionally been very plain, and the cardholder has been given a standard card having only a standard design usedby the card issuer, if any. To address this, some card issuers haveoffered a selection of standard designs to choose from. However, thecard holder has been given no opportunity to create a truly customdesign to apply to the transactional card.

SUMMARY

Exemplary embodiments address these issues and others by providing cardholders with the ability to create custom designs for transactionalcards. For example, the card holder may be able to use a computerprogram to create a custom design and then apply the design to atransactional card such as by printing a label to apply to a blankportion of the transaction card of by printing directly onto the blankportion. As another example, the card holder may utilize a web site tocreate a custom design, and the card issuer may then manufacture thetransactional card according to the custom design.

One embodiment a method of creating a customized transactional card thatinvolves obtaining a transactional card including account information,the transactional card being at least partially blank. The methodfurther involves accessing a customized design created by a card holderfor the at least partially blank transactional card. Additionally, themethod involves placing the customized design onto the at leastpartially blank transactional card to cover at least a portion of thetransactional card that is blank to create a customized transactionalcard.

Another embodiment is a method of creating a customized transactionalcard that involves receiving data files from a card holder, the datafiles containing customized design features selected by the card holder.The method further involves constructing the transactional card inaccordance with the selected design features and providing amachine-readable element having account information present on thetransactional card.

Another embodiment is a transactional card that includes a body having afirst side and a second side. A machine-readable element is affixed tothe body and has an account number present thereon. At least one designelement is integrated onto the first side of the body, wherein the atleast one design element is created by a card holder having an accountto which the account number is associated.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a front side of one exemplary embodiment of a customizedtransactional card.

FIG. 2 shows a back side of one exemplary embodiment of a customizedtransactional card.

FIG. 3 is a chart of illustrative examples for creating customizedtransactional cards.

FIG. 4 shows various components used for various exemplary embodimentsof creating customized transactional cards.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a web page for receiving user input to createa customized card.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments provide for customized transactional cards.According to one or more embodiments, card holders can choose fromvarious design options including providing their own images forinclusion within the card design. The various embodiments provide forthe card holder to produce the customized card from a blank or submitdesign data to a card issuer where the card is then produced inaccordance with the design data.

FIG. 1 shows a front side 102 of one embodiment of a transaction card100 while FIG. 2 shows the back side 118. This embodiment includes avariety of customized design elements that are discussed below. However,it should be appreciated that the number of customized design elementsthat are present for various embodiments may differ from that shown inFIG. 1, and the embodiment of FIGS. 1-2 is shown only for purposes ofillustration.

The transactional card 100 may contain materials found in conventionaltransactional cards using well known techniques and using well knownmaterials for producing transactional cards. For example, thetransactional card 100 may be constructed of plastic or other inorganicor organic materials including recycled materials and the like.According to one embodiment, the transactional card 100 has amachine-readable element 120, such as a strip located on the back side118. The machine-readable element 120 may be one of various types, suchas a magnetic strip, a bar code. The machine-readable element 120 may beof other forms as well, such as a radio frequency identification (RFID)tag or chip, or as discussed below may be a graphical image such asphotograph that has information including the account numberinterspersed within it. At some point during the creation of thecustomized transactional card 100, an account number associated with thetransactional card 100 is encoded on the machine-readable element 120 sothat the account number can be acquired when the transactional card 100is swiped or otherwise read at a card reader device. The account number112 may also be provided visually on the front side 102 along with thename 114 of the card holder.

As shown, this particular embodiment includes various custom designelements on the front 102, such as images and heat sensitivecolor-changing coatings. In this example, the card holder has chosen toinclude an image 104 of an automobile and an image 106 of the family ofthe card holder. Images to be included may be chosen from stock imagesavailable from a design application being used by the card holder or thecard holder may be given the option to upload specific photographs orother images that the card holder has available.

Furthermore, the customized design elements may include encoded glyphsand/or other information bearing effects such as that discussed incommonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/022,531 entitledMETHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR PROVIDINGPERSONALIZED, JUST-IN-TIME INFORMATION SERVICES, which is incorporatedherein by reference. In this manner, the customization may includeimportant and possibly time-sensitive information regarding the cardholder in addition to merely ornamental effects. For example, medical orfinancial information and/or forms of identification may be included toincrease the value of the transactional card to the user.

Additionally, according to one embodiment, a first heat sensitivecolor-changing coating 110 is located beneath the image 104 while asecond heat sensitive color-changing coating 108 is located beneath theimage 106. When the transactional card 100 is grasped by the card holderat either the coating 108 or 110, the coating 108 or 110 is heated andchanges colors. Various different coatings may be applied to provide fordifferent colors on the same transactional card. Such coatings may beprovided for their entertainment value to card holders. Such coatingsmay also be provided for other purposes, such as to provide analternative form of identification or verification of use of the card.For example, the merchant accepting the card may examine whether thecolor of the card indicates nervousness of the card holder and may inferthat the card holder may not be an authorized user. Thus, the real cardholder may select such coatings as an additional form of protectionagainst unauthorized use of the card.

The front side 102 of this embodiment also includes a logo 116 of thecard issuer. The logo 116 may be a custom design element that may beselected by the card holder. As discussed below, benefits may beprovided to the card holder in exchange for selecting certain logos toinclude on the transactional card 100. Alternatively, the logo 116 ofthe card issuer may be mandatory such that blank cards issued to a cardholder to allow the card holder to create the design may already havethe logo in place. In another alternative, the design application beingused by the card holder may require that the logo be included.

The back side 118 may also include custom design elements. In thisexample, the back side 118 includes an image 122 of a pet of the cardholder, an image 124 of scenery chosen by the card holder, and an image126 of the home of the card holder. In addition to images, the back side118 of this example includes a coating 128 that is scented. Such acoating 128 may be activated by heat or other forms of agitation suchthat the scent is provided in response to the card holder grasping orotherwise agitating the coating 128. Examples of scents include flowers,food, and the like.

FIG. 3 shows a chart that includes several illustrative embodiments ofmethods for creating a customized transactional card. FIG. 4 shows anexample of the components that are used in the embodiments of FIG. 3when creating the customized transactional card.

In Example 1, the card holder obtains a transactional card 416 that isat least partially blank where the blank portion is intended forreceiving a custom design. In this example, the transactional card ismanufactured at a card issuer manufacturing facility 414 and is sent tothe card holder by the card issuer, such as in response to the cardholder requesting an account that has an associated transactional card.Prior to sending the transactional card to the card holder, the cardissuer manufacturing facility 414 has encoded the transactional cardwith an account number that has been assigned by a card issuer accountadministration facility 412 which has established the account associatedwith the account number.

The account number may be present on the transactional card such as byencoding the number within a machine-readable element on thetransactional card. For example, the account number may be magneticallyencoded on a magnetic strip, visually encoded within a bar code, orencoded into an RFID tag or chip. Furthermore, the account number and/orother information may be present within graphical representations, suchas embedded or interspersed within the pixel rows and columns of images,e.g. within image 106, that are present on the transactional card bydefault or by the selection of the card holder. For the utmost insecurity, the user may choose to have the account number not be presentin the form of visual characters so that the account number can only beobtained from the machine-readable element. Accordingly, unauthorizedindividuals cannot simply read the number from the card and then use itto make an on-line or telephone purchase.

In this Example 1, upon the card holder receiving the transactional card416, the transactional card 416 is already ready to be used but lacksthe custom design. The card holder then utilizes, for example, acomputer application 404 on a personal computer 402 to generate thedesign. For example, the computer application 404 may be a localapplication being implemented by the personal computer 402 or may be aweb browser that has loaded a web page that provides card design tools,as shown in FIG. 5 discussed below. The card holder may be using thepersonal computer 402 directly, such as at the home of the card holder,or may be using the personal computer 402 indirectly, such as bydirecting a representative of the card issuer located at a kiosk orservice bureau who is using the personal computer 402.

The application 404 may provide the card holder with many options forthe customized design. For example there may be a variety of stockimages to be chosen. The size and location on the transactional card foreach image may be selected. The application 404 may allow the cardholder to upload custom images, such as personal photographs, graphicalimages, etc., to be included within the design. Furthermore, theapplication may allow for additional selections such as corporate logosto be included, coatings to be applied to provide for heat sensitivecolor-change and/or scents. Additionally, where the application 404 is aweb browser accessing a publicly available web site for designingtransactional cards, the web site may allow for the design to be savedor even published for selection by other card holders. Additionally, theapplication 404 or web site may provide credits or other benefits to thecard holder where the card holder chooses certain logos to include inthe design and/or if the design that is published by the card holder ischosen by other card holders.

Once the design has been completed within the application 404, theapplication 404 then sends the design to a card printer 406 or ontovarious media types including plastic and other organic or inorganicmaterials including recycled materials and the like. In the exampleshown, the card printer 406 may be a conventional laser or jet printercapable of receiving plastic or other cards as the input medium. Such aprinter may be capable of printing gray scale or color, and may also becapable of printing coatings including heat sensitive coatings andscented coatings. Examples of such printers are described athttp://www.plasticprinters.com/equipment, which is incorporated hereinby reference.

Additionally, three-dimensional lithographic printing may be employed tobuild-up objects onto the card to further allow for customization viaraised objects, characters, and so forth. For example, three-dimensionallithographic printing may be used to build-up the account characters andname of the account holder.

Prior to sending the design to the card printer 406, the blank card 416has been fed to the printer 406. Once the design information is sent tothe printer 406, the blank card 416 is then printed upon at least oneside to apply the custom design and thereby output custom card 416′. Ifthere is a custom design for both sides of the card 416 and the printer406 is only capable of printing one side at a time, then the card 416′may be fed back to the printer but oriented in the opposite manner sothat the design for the opposite side can be applied. Once the printingis finished, the custom transactional card is ready for use by the cardholder.

As an alternative, the transactional card 416 may be capable ofreceiving a label that is placed over the blank portion, where the labelis sent through the printer rather than the complete card so thatvirtually any printer is capable of creating the customized design. Oncethe label has been fed to the printer 406, the application 404 sends thedesign to the printer 406 to place the design on the label. The label isthen applied to the appropriate side of the blank transactional card 416to create the customized transactional card 416′. The blanktransactional card 416 may have a specific area that is delineated sothat the card holder can easily determine where the label should beplaced.

Furthermore, scented and/or heat sensitive labels may be applied to thecard. Examples and/or details for such scented labels may be found athttp://www.printmeprim.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=ScentLabels,http://www.aero.si/ps/prom_tix.htm,http://www.paperspecs.com/resources/tips/200561516195.htm,http://www.microscent.com, each of which is incorporated herein byreference. Examples and/or details for such heat sensitive labels may befound at http://www.drypak.com/index.asp?cat-62759 andhttp://www.futurehealth.org/stressma.htm, each of which is incorporatedby reference.

Additionally, custom stickers may be generated to place on the card.Such stickers may be temporary in that they can be removed and replacedas desired. In this manner, the user may update the same card from timeto time with a new sticker design. Additionally, where time-sensitiveinformation is to be included on the card in accordance with theprinciples disclosed in U.S. Application Ser. No. 11/022,531, thistime-sensitive information may be included on a sticker so that thetime-sensitive information maybe easily updated

In Example 2, the card holder obtains a blank card 408 such as from athird party supplier or at a kiosk of the card issuer. In this example,no account number is yet assigned to the transactional card 408. At somepoint prior to the card holder first using the transactional card 408,the card holder sends the transactional card 408 to the card issuerwhere an account number is assigned to and encoded upon thetransactional card and an associated account is established. Thetransactional card 408 is then returned to the card holder.

Either before or after sending the transactional card 408 to the cardissuer, the card holder may create a design using the application 404and then may place the design onto the transactional card 408 by feedingthe transactional card 408 or a label to the printer 406 and initiatingprinting of the design from the application 404 to produce thecustomized transactional card 408′. If the customized designed isapplied first, then it is the customized transactional card 408′ that isultimately sent to the card issuer, where the manufacturing facility 414then encodes the account number onto the transactional card 408′ basedon the account number provided form the account administration facility412 prior to returning the transactional card 408′ to the card holder.

In Example 3, the card holder obtains a blank card 408 such as from athird party supplier or at a kiosk of the card issuer. In this example,no account number is yet assigned to the transactional card 408. Thecard holder at some point submits a request for an account to the cardissuer. The card issuer account administration facility 412 receives therequest and then returns an account number and establishes an accountassociated with the account number.

The request for and return of the account number may be done via securecommunications through the network 410 by the card issuer accountadministration facility 412 interacting with the application 404. Inthat case, either before, during, or after printing of the design thatthe card holder has created via the application 404, the application 404may also direct the printer 406 to print a machine-readable bar codethat encodes the account number. Alternatively, where the personalcomputer 402 is in communication with a card strip writer 420, which ismore likely in the context of a card issuer kiosk or service bureau, theaccount number may be encoded upon a magnetic strip of the blanktransactional card 408 or customized transactional card 408′. Likewise,the account number may be encoded into an RFID chip or tag.

In Example 4, the card holder does not obtain a blank card but insteadaccesses an application, such as a web site within a browser, thatallows for customized design creation for transactional cards. The cardholder creates the design within the application, which may allow thecard holder to upload data files including photographic and graphicalimages. The card holder may upload this data, e.g., at a website.Alternatively, the card holder may send the customized data via email,regular mail, etc. Upon having received the customized design data, thecard issuer then proceeds to create the customized transactional card inaccordance with the design data at the manufacturing facility 414,including providing an account number received from the accountadministration facility 412 and encoding it upon the customizedtransactional card 418. As an alternative, a third party entity mayreceive the transactional card from the card issuer and apply thecustomization indicated by the card holder. The customized transactionalcard 418 is then sent to the card holder.

As shown in FIG. 5, a user may log on to a web page 500 of a card issueror card manufacturer. The user may enter the card holder's name in aname field 501. The web page 500 may offer various categories of optionsthat the user may select from to mix and match design elements asdesired. For example, a “Scents” option 502 provides various scents fromwhich the user can choose. A “Labels” option 504 provides various labelsto add to the card, such as heat sensitive and/or scented labels, and“Other” option 506 may provide for other options, such as options formore sophisticated cards that have circuitry for storing sound effects,lighting effects, and so forth. “Photographs/Images” option 508 mayprovide for selection of stock photographs, images, corporate logos, andthe like while “Coatings” option 510 may provide for selection ofvarious coatings to be applied to the card.

In order for the user to further add customization, image field 512 andtext field 514 may be provided. The user may enter a path to an imagefile via image field 512. For example, the user may have one or moreimages stored locally and may wish to upload those to the web page forinclusion on the card. The user may directly type in text to add to thecard via text field 514 and then position that block of text in thedesired location on side 516 or 518.

The card may be illustrated as the front side 516 and back side 518 onthe web page 500, and the user may drag and drop options such as thescents to the chosen side and particular location where the effect is tobe located. The illustrations 516, 518 may provide a visual preview ofthe card as the user continues to select options and review the result.The user may be given the option to undo effects or to repositioneffects such as by dragging and dropping the effects visuallyrepresented on the sides 516, 518.

Thus, through the various exemplary embodiments discussed herein,account holders are given the ability to create customized transactionalcards. An account holder may prefer to customize the transactional cardrather than using a standard design. Accordingly, the account holder maybe more likely to establish an account such as a credit or pre-paidaccount with an account issuer who allows customized transactionalcards.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to various exemplary embodiments thereof, it will beunderstood by those skilled in the art that various other changes in theform and details may be made therein without departing from the spiritand scope of the invention.

1. A method of creating a customized transactional card, comprising:receiving data files from a card holder, the data files containingcustomized design features selected by the card holder, wherein the datafiles are received via a website, and the selected design features aresaved via the website as a design option for selection from the websiteby other card holders; constructing the transactional card in accordancewith the selected design features; and providing a machine-readableelement having account information present on the transactional card. 2.The method of claim 1, wherein the design features include at least oneof images and scents.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data file isan image file.